The book of Revelation is a visionary tale of how the Christian world will end leading up to the second coming of their savior. The scenes paint an image of a wrathful God poring vengeance upon the world to punish the nonbelievers. Throughout history the message of Revelation attracted scrutiny, and in most cases within Christian religious organizations. Perhaps there is a reason that Revelation was the last book officially canonized, and perhaps there is a reason why it is in such heavy use today. These are a few of the topics I wish to discuss in part one of my Revelation series.

One of the first notable Christian figures to sideline Revelation was Eusebius who was an early Christian historian. He wrote “church history”, c 325CE. As a result of his studies he placed the book of Revelation on the Antilegomena list, or disputed works. Roughly one hundred years after the cannon had been assembled Revelation was finally accepted and canonized at the council of Carthage c. 397CE.

Over the centuries disputes over this book have been nearly constant.

There are several ways Christian sects deal with this particular text. The following four interpretation styles are simply container folders for many other interpretations.

Historicist, this explanation focuses on the historical value within the text, and shies away from the prophetic use of the book.

Preterist, similar to the Historicist view the Preterist angle tags Revelation as pertaining only to the 1st or 2nd century CE.

Futurist, this understanding of Revelation embraces the book as a marker for things to come. People or churches which fall under this category can also be called millenialists.

Idealist, finally Idealists see the book as entirely allegorical.

There are of course many other interpretations of Revelation, and some are a mix between these four main categories. Still, the futurist Revelation concept has caused a rather fanatical conglomerate of Christians in America. I actually have friends and family members who subscribe to this interpretation. Sadly, the lifestyle many of them have chosen as a result of this one book is social suicide at best. The following video is from a small ministry, but it illustrates the illogical view Revelation has caused in modern society.

For the past two thousand years Christians and the like have assumed (ass-u-me) the end was near. The crusades were supposed to be Armageddon. Mass suicides in the 1800′s and early in the 20th century were attempts to get Gods attention.

So why the book of revelation? Out of all the books in the bible, Revelation seems to have, not only the most deliberate placement, but also the most doctored message. “BE AFRAID AND JOIN US!” which I am absolutely positive was not the message Jesus brought with him, and it is solid proof that the bible has HUMAN ambitions, and not super natural.

Cliché clippings from Revelation are the “mark of the beast”, and “antichrist”, in both cases a futurist Christian will go ape-shit when talk of ID chips, or artificial anything inserted into a person’s body comes up. In the same regard any politician or leader of a nation they find imposing on their beliefs become the target of name calling. For instance Bush and Obama were labeled as Antichrists. This is surprising since Republicans are more often in line with the Christian perspective.

To conclude I would like to address any Christians who may have stumbled upon this post. Please heed the following, or don’t… (notice how I didn’t say Please heed the following, or spend the rest of your life in an inferno.) Just saying…

Please, End-times-Christians? Think about what you are doing when announcing to the world, full of flocks (people that don’t think for themselves.), that this person-or-that-person is the antichrist, and to be afraid of this menacing persons capabilities. As a Christian, you shouldn’t care anyway, so it should be of no consequence to you anyway. Stop being part of the problem and quite your tongue in the matters that even you need not worry about.

Please, please, Christians! Tear the book of Revelation out of your bibles, because it has absolutely nothing to do with your religion. Please stop spreading fear into this world, and start doing what Christians ought to do. LOVE THY ENEMY/NEIGHBOR / FAMILY, and so on, or stone them to death depending on what verse you feel fits you today.

~~~Thanks for reading part one. next week I will take on part two: Failed Prophesies of Revelation.~~~